Master of Arts in Speech Pathology and Audiology, Cleveland State University, 2021, College of Sciences and Health Professions

This qualitative study analyzed student and instructor responses to survey questions regarding the effect of COVID-19 on clinical and academic instruction. Two hundred sixty-three accredited communication sciences and disorders and audiology programs across the United States received the survey. Overall, there were 931 participants, including both students and instructors. These participants responded to 19 content questions on the survey developed to help answer five research questions: (1) how were participants affected in terms of their emotional state? (2) Were students and instructors prepared for Forced Online Instruction (FOI)? (3) Were students and instructors comfortable with the level of education provided online? (4) Were students and instructors comfortable with the technology required for FOI? (5) Did students and instructors miss the socialization of classroom learning? The study found that instructor and student responses differed along the lines of academic instruction. Only 25% of students agreed that they received comparable education online compared to in-person, whereas 40% of instructors felt they provided equivalent instruction online. Furthermore, students also reported that their clinical education was not comparable online to in-person. On the other hand, instructors believed they provided equivalent instruction. Instructors (31%) felt as though they provided equivalent clinical education online, whereas 20% of students felt as though the clinical education they received was equivalent online to in-person.

Committee: Violet Cox Ph.D., MLS, CCC-SLP (Committee Chair); Monica Gordon Pershey Ed.D., CCC-SLP (Committee Member); Carol Spears M.A., CCC-SLP (Committee Member) Subjects: Education

Master of Science (MS), Ohio University, 2020, Journalism (Communication)

Although female journalists persistently experience misogynist online harassment while doing their jobs, this topic has yet to receive significant attention in the German journalism landscape. As revealed through seven in-depth interviews with female, German journalists, these experiences include accusations of attention-seeking, attacks against their appearance, discrediting their skills, infantilization, unsolicited images, misogynist slurs and even fantasies about sexual violence and rape. For intersectionally marginalized female journalists, such as Black women, women of color or Jewish women, these experiences are compounded by the addition of racist and anti-Semitic online harassment. As explained by the interviewees, the effects of this harassment are felt in their personal lives: It leads to mental exhaustion, self-doubt, getting used to it as well as to the adoption of additional safety precautions in one's personal life. The harassment also impacts the professional lives of female journalists in the form of withdrawing from social media and/or certain topics, interruptions to one's work, taking additional safety precautions at work and considerations of quitting one's job. In particular, the effects of misogynist online harassment impacted freelancing female journalists whose professional lives are generally more precarious than those of their salaried peers. As a result, all interviewees were unanimous in their demand of fundamental changes both within the newsroom and in society.

Committee: Victoria LaPoe (Committee Chair); Mario Haim (Committee Member); Kefajatullah Hamidi (Committee Member) Subjects: Communication; Gender Studies; Journalism; Mass Communications

MA, Kent State University, 2013, College of Communication and Information / School of Media and Journalism

Responding to a growth in technology, young people often turn to social media and online communication as their primary means of expression and interaction. However, some of the content students create and post while at home can negatively affect the school environment. School administrators have, at times, disciplined students for their off-campus online speech. This act has raised legal questions about how much control schools can and should possess over speech that originates away from the school's physical boundaries. Some students and their families have sued their respective school districts when they perceive an overreach in school authority for such discipline. Despite this issue's gravity among First Amendment scholars and advocates, the general public probably has little direct experience with these legal questions beyond what it learns through news reports. Because news is a basic social learning tool, the way journalists present information can profoundly affect the public's understanding of any given issue. This study examined how the news media portrayed four court cases pertinent to this issue: Layshock v. Hermitage School District, J. S. v. Blue Mountain School District, Doninger v. Niehoff, and Kowalski v. Berkeley County Schools. The researcher used textual analysis to investigate the frames found in 76 news stories by examining the way journalists presented the following items: legal context, the actions of the student litigant, the actions of school administrators, and the online speech itself that initially led to school discipline.

Committee: Candace Bowen M.A. (Advisor); Mark Goodman J.D. (Advisor); Danielle Coombs Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Education; Educational Leadership; Journalism; Legal Studies; Mass Media